Publication Date
2-1-2022
Abstract
To a lay person reading about history of physics, it may sound as if the progress of physics comes from geniuses whose inspiration leads them to precise equations that -- almost magically -- explain all the data: this is what Newton did with mechanics, this is what Schroedinger did with quantum physics, this is what Einstein did with gravitation. However, a deeper study of history of physics shows that in all these cases, these geniuses did not start from scratch -- they formalized ideas that first appeared in imprecise ("fuzzy") form. In this paper, we explain -- on the qualitative level -- why ideas usually first appear in informal, imprecise form. This explanations enables us to understand other seemingly counterintuitive facts -- e.g., that it is much more difficult for a person to know him/herself than to know others. We also provide some general recommendations based on this explanation.
Comments
Technical Report: UTEP-CS-22-18